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Most stocks closed lower as the constrictor of higher interest rates tightened its coils around Wall Street NEW YORK -- Stocks mostly slipped in mixed trading Monday as the constrictor of higher interest rates tightened its coils around Wall Street. The S & P 500 edged up by 0.34, or less than 0.1%, to 4,288.39, coming off its worst month of the year. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 74.15 points, or 0.2%, to 33,433.35, and the Nasdaq composite rose 88.45, or 0.7%, to 13,307.77. Slumps for oil-and-gas stocks weighed on the market after crude prices gave back some of the sharp gains made since the summer. The majority of stocks fell alongside them, with more than three quarters of those within the S & P 500 sinking, but gains for Apple and other influential Big Tech stocks helped support indexes. Stocks have broadly given back 40% of their strong gains for the year since the end of July. The main reason is Wall Street’s growing acceptance that high interest rates are her...

An official says China's economic recovery faces pressure from sluggish consumer and export demand BEIJING -- China’s economic recovery faces pressure from sluggish consumer and export demand, a government official said Tuesday, after retail sales and other activity in April were weaker than expected. Chinese activity accelerated while U.S. and European economic growth is cooling following interest rate hikes to extinguish i NFL ation. But consumer spending, an important economic engine, is taking longer than expected to recover after most Chinese curbs on Business activity and Travel ended in December. “The recover y of demand is still insufficient,” said Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, at a news conference. “External demand has weakened” and exporters face a “complex and severe” environment. Growth in retail sales accelerated to 18.4% over a year earlier in April, official data showed, but that was below private sector expectations of up to 3...